Guild Wars 2 Developer Responds to Bans, Hackings

Following the Guild Wars 2 launch, the developer ArenaNet suspended a number of users for offensive names and abuse or inappropriate language in the chat. Resulting in a fallout, an ArenaNet employee has taken to Reddit to explain the bans in more detail.

Despite the detailed names policy, a number of players were suspended from their Guild Wars 2 account. Some members reported being suspended despite having clean names, leading to some controversy. As a result, one of the developers submitted a post on Reddit to explain the situation.

Members caught sending inappropriate messages in chat were also suspended. The suspension for inappropriate messages and offensive names lasts for three days, with members who sport illegal usernames being forced to change their name.

“When an account is blocked for a chat offense, the account is given a three-day suspension. When an account is blocked for an offensive name, the player is required to rename the character name and, in most cases, the account is also given a three-day suspension.”

The representative also said, “The number of account blocks is miniscule: less than .001% of our total player base.” Sounds like it was a very vocal minority.

Meanwhile, there are other members of the community who signed in to also discover that they were banned. Various users involved in the conversation on the Reddit page were informed that their accounts had been hacked.

Recently, Guild Wars 2 has been subjected to phishing and attempted account hacks. This is inevitable for a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, as even MMO’s such as web browser title RuneScape have been subjected to these issues for a long time. Members are warned not to share their password with anyone, as ArenaNet employees will not request their details.

Members who feel they have been banned unfairly should respond to the post, meanwhile members who have been hacked should contact support immediately.